Marley & Me

2005 book by John Grogan

the film based on the book

Marley & Me: Life and Love with the World's Worst Dog is an autobiographical book by journalist John Grogan, published in 2005, about the 13 years he and his family spent with their yellow Labrador Retriever, Marley. The dog is poorly behaved and destructive, and the book covers the issues this causes in the family as they learn to accept him in addition to their grief following Marley's death. It was subsequently adapted by the author into three separate books, as well as into a comedy drama film released in 2008.

Told in first person narrative, the book portrays Grogan and his family's life during the 13 years that they lived with their dog Marley, and the relationships and lessons from this period. Marley, a yellow Labrador Retriever, is described as a high strung, boisterous, and somewhat uncontrolled dog. He is strong, powerful, endlessly hungry, eager to be active, and often destructive of their property (but completely without malice). Marley routinely fails to "get the idea" of what humans expect of him; at one point, mental illness is suggested as a plausible explanation for his behavior. His acts and behaviors are forgiven, however, since it is clear that he has a heart of gold and is merely living within his nature. Marley was filmed for a two minute credited appearance in the 1996 movie The Last Home Run. The strong contrast between the problems and tensions caused by his neuroses and behavior, and the undying devotion, love and trust shown towards the human family as they themselves have children and grow up to accept him for what he is, and their grief when he finally dies from gastric dilatation volvulus (a stomach torsion condition) in old age, form the backdrop for the biographical material of the story. In the autobiography, Grogan states that the eulogy he wrote in his newspaper following the death of his dog received more responses than any other column he had written in his professional life up until that point. In a discussion on his website devoted to the book, he looks back on his family's time with Marley, and the lessons learned, and concludes that: "[C]ommitment matters. That 'in good times and bad, in sickness and in health' really means something. We didn't give up on Marley when it would have been easy to, and in the end he came through and proved himself a great and memorable pet."